Re: Pointer to the ontology for generic resources. HTTP Link header.

Phil Archer <parcher <at> icra.org>
2007-11-02 22:07:17 GMT

There's a good deal of 'noise' about the HTTP Link header at the moment
- and not all of it created by me (honest!).
In the currently published draft of the POWDER Description Resources
document [1] we posit the use of HTTP Link - but, as the doc shows, this
is something of an open question. Dan Connolly [2] questioned it and,
well, there's a short thread with lots of links to evidence to support
the contention that the only real problem with the HTTP Link header is
that, whilst it was defined in RFC 2068, it was dropped in RFC2616 (but
it remains in the registry).
The new HTTPBIS WG [3] isn't going to re-instate the header, but Mark
Nottingham may re-issue his draft on this and the associated HTTP
Profile header [4]. The 'protocol part' of the Protocol for Web
Description Resources is handicapped by its absence so I'm certainly
hoping Mark will re-issue it and that there will be support from
elsewhere. I guess it's all about trying to build momentum, show use
cases and the fact that, well, it's proven to work.
On a practical level, the dependency on HTTP Link being formalised has
been removed from the next published draft of the POWDER doc but we hint
at its existence and plan to show example of its use in the (yet to be
written) non-normative Primer.
Phil.
[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/2007/WD-powder-dr-20070925/#assoc
[2] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-powderwg/2007Oct/0002.html
[3] http://www.ietf.org/html.charters/httpbis-charter.html